


The Long Road Home

by Operation_Save_Ben_Solo



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Character Death Fix, F/M, Fix-It, POV Ben Solo, POV Rey (Star Wars), Redeemed Ben Solo, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-25 08:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22092853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Operation_Save_Ben_Solo/pseuds/Operation_Save_Ben_Solo
Summary: How Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker might have ended if Ben Solo had lived.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 8
Kudos: 93





	1. Into the Pit

**Author's Note:**

> I always assumed I'd be one and done with Star Wars fanfic. I wrote "Just Ben" as a way to pass the time between TLJ and Episode IX. It was an excuse to write kissing scenes that eventually evolved into something more. If not a fully fleshed-out story, at least wish fulfillment with a somewhat discernible plot. 
> 
> I had no clue at the time how much I'd need that wish fulfillment after the release of TROS. I thought it would be enough, but as it turned out, not even Rey and Ben's happily ever after on Tatooine was enough to completely erase the ache left by Ben's canon death (although I refuse to believe he's really gone). 
> 
> "The Long Road Home" is my attempt to rewrite the ending of TROS - with a few key changes (Ben lives, obviously) - while remaining as faithful to the original as possible. It's brief - just three chapters - and begins with Ben's descent into the pit. 
> 
> It doesn't fix everything that I thought was wrong with the movie, but it makes the most egregious mistake hurt a little less. I hope you enjoy it.

He was falling.

He was falling so far and so fast and the wind was whistling past his ears with the deafening roar of a ship at full burn. It had happened so quickly. One moment he'd been crawling to his feet, ready to face down Palpatine – on his own if he had to – and then he'd been flying through the air, tossed like a rag doll with barely any effort on Palpatine's part. It was his life force – his and Rey's – that had given the old emperor this power, their bond that had fueled his regeneration. And now Rey was up there with him.

Alone.

Ben's body hit rock with a bone-jarring thud, the bones in his leg snapping as he scrabbled to hold on to the jagged outcropping etched into the side of the seemingly endless pit. He pulled painfully to his feet, pressed his body flush against the frigid stone, and quieted his mind.

Rey was stirring. He could feel it, as surely as he felt his own heart pounding in his chest. But she was weak. Disoriented. Defeated.

No. Not defeated. Rey was many things, but she was never defeated.

_Get up_ , he whispered through the bond. _Get up and fight. I know you can._

Ben heaved a ragged sigh of relief as a familiar warmth blossomed in his chest – Rey's life spark – burning with newfound strength. He looked at the walls of the pit stretching high above his head and the frustrating lack of adequate hand and footholds. The journey to the top would be painful, especially with a broken leg, but he wouldn't give up. He would reach Rey, or he would die trying.

_I'm coming, my love._

Gingerly he reached his hand toward a barely discernible notch in the stone – a large crack, really – and began to pull his battered body up one painstaking hand and foothold at a time. Above his head, the battle between Rey and her grandfather raged. The crackle of force lightning and the emperor's deranged laugh echoed through the stone cavern, followed by Rey's screams. And then.

Silence.

The bond connecting him to Rey went slack, and Ben's heart seized. He climbed faster, one hand over the other until finally – finally – he found solid ground. With an agonized grunt, he pulled his body over the top.

_Rey! Where are you?_

There. Crumpled on the ground in front of Palpatine's throne. So silent. So still.

The world around him was eerily quiet. The emperor was gone. His acolytes were gone, and his throne room was in ruins. So was Ben's heart.

_I didn't come this far just to lose her. I won't let her die. I can't._

Ben half-walked half-crawled to Rey's side and pulled her as gently as possible onto his lap and into his arms. She was as limp as a rag doll. He held her gently against him, his very heart rebelling against the possibility that she was gone. Lost to him forever.

_No._

Rey had healed him on Kef Bir. Closed up a fatal wound in his side and erased the scar she'd given him on Starkiller Base with as much effort as she might expend bandaging a scrape.

And then she'd turned his world upside down.

"I did want to take your hand – as Ben," she'd tearfully confessed amid the ruins of the second Death Star. He'd lain there, stunned into silence, as she ran away.

He'd never believed himself worthy of redemption – had confessed as much to Rey in the Death Star's ruined throne room. But that was Master Snoke's voice in his head. And Snoke was dead.

Anyway, there were new voices now.

Rey.

His mother.

His father.

They'd spoken to him of love – something he hadn't felt worthy of in a very long time. _If they believe in Ben Solo that much_ , he thought, _then why can't I?_

It had been a simple matter, then, to embrace his true destiny and surrender Kylo Ren to the waves along with his abandoned lightsaber. To find an old Imperial Tie Fighter and race to this godforsaken planet to stand with Rey against the very evil he had once embraced.

Rey had healed him. They were a dyad – one soul shared between two bodies. If she could heal him, then certainly he could do the same for her.

Except that Rey had been at full strength when she'd healed him. He wasn't. Palpatine had drained him of much of his life force, and the fall into the pit had injured him further. It was entirely possible that healing her might cost him his life.

And yet, none of that mattered. Rey was his soulmate. His other half. Life without her wasn't worth living.

Ever so gently, Ben laid Rey back down. Then he splayed his hand against her side and willed every last bit of his life force into her broken body. Long seconds passed and nothing happened.

_It's not working. Why isn't it working?_

He was so focused on his task, he missed it at first – the feel of her hand on his, soft as a whisper. The burning awareness in the back of his mind and the warmth spreading through his heart. Rey opened her eyes and sat up.

"Ben," she whispered with a smile. Pressed her hands to either side of his face and looked at him in silent wonder.

Then she kissed him. It was gentle. It was fierce. It was the world imploding and galaxies colliding and everything he'd always wanted but never dared hope he would ever deserve.

He had loved Rey as Kylo Ren, but those feelings had been a shadow of what he felt for her now as the redeemed Ben Solo. She had forgiven him – as his father and his mother had forgiven him – and she loved him. Of that he was certain.

Rey broke the kiss, leaving them both breathless. Ben's lips tipped into a smile, his first in years. It had been so long. Was this what happiness felt like?

But something was very wrong.

_I should have known it wouldn't last._

The world went dark as he collapsed to the ground. His fingers and toes, arms and legs, everything went cold. So cold. Oblivion beckoned, its spindly fingers icing over his ears, his eyes, relentlessly sucking every bit of feeling left in his body.

_Goodbye, Rey. I love you._

But, somehow, Rey's will was stronger than the forces that sought to pull him to his death and so was the tether that bound them.

"I'm not done with you yet, Ben Solo," she said fiercely, slapping at his cheeks and shaking his shoulders. "We are one, which means we live and die as one. So, wake up. Wake up, dammit!"

The warmth began as a tickle deep in his core and spread outward slowly but steadily. His senses returned in bits and pieces. The feel of her tears as they fell, warm on his cheeks. Their salty tang as one dripped into his open mouth. Her soft exhalations as she poured life back into his body, each breath as sweet as a kiss.

Ben wrenched his eyes open.

"Rey."

"You came back," she said, laughing through her tears.

"We came back." He smiled again. Then he reached up with gentle hands and freed the buns at the back of her head so that her hair fell around them in a shimmering brown sheet. "I love you," he said, suddenly shy. "I don't know if you could ever be with someone who's done the things I've done, but –"

Rey pressed her finger against his lips, silencing him. "Don't," she admonished gently. "Who you were doesn't matter. Not anymore. I can't promise everyone else will accept that you've changed, but I know your heart as well as I know my own and I can feel the change. Kylo Ren is gone. You are Ben Solo now. _My_ Ben, and I love you. Nothing will ever change that."

Rey helped him to his feet, held him up with the strength in her own slender body as, slowly, they made their way around the debris of the ruined temple, toward the planet's surface and freedom. Each step sent waves of pain through his broken leg, but it would be nothing compared to what he would face if he and Rey had any hope of staying together.

"The galaxy won't accept me, you know," he said as they limped through the wreckage. "Not like you do. They'll execute me for my crimes –"

"No!" Rey said vehemently. "They won't. I won't let them."

"You won't have a choice."

"Then we'll run away. Somewhere in the far reaches of the galaxy where no one will find us."

"You'll lose everyone," he said softly. "Uncle Chewie, your runaway stormtrooper, the cocky-ass pilot. Not to mention the galaxy needs your skills as a Jedi."

"They need yours, too," she insisted.

"They won't want someone they can't trust."

"Then we teach them to trust you."

"You're awfully stubborn," he panted as they stepped onto the lift that would take them to the surface. "But not everyone's as forgiving as you are."

"I wasn't forgiving at first, either," she reminded him as the lift started moving. "If I can change my mind, then other people will, too. Give the Resistance a chance," she said. "Please. I promise, if things get bad, we'll sneak out in the middle of the night and go somewhere safe."

The lift came juddering to a halt at the planet's surface. Ben stared at Uncle Luke's old X-Wing fighter, shrouded in fog.

"I can't believe you came here in that piece of junk," he said. "What did you do with my Interceptor?"

"I burned it," she said sheepishly.

"You burned it?"

"On Ahch-To. I was going to strand myself there like Luke did so that I couldn't hurt anyone else, but he talked me out of it."

"It looks a little…soggy."

"Wait until you smell the inside. Luke sunk it off the coast of the island years ago. It stinks of saltwater and dead fish. It's a miracle it still runs."

"Yes, well, since you marooned me on Kef Bir, I had to rehab an old Imperial-Era Tie Fighter in order to get here. I barely got the thing off the ground. So, what'll it be? Tie Fighter or Uncle Luke's X-Wing?"

"The Resistance will blow the Tie Fighter out of the sky. We're better off in the X-Wing. But neither of them is built for two, and you have a broken leg. Can you make it?"

Ben's ears grew hot at the thought of sitting in such close quarters with Rey. "It could work," he squeaked.

It took some maneuvering, but they got Ben onto the wing and into the seat. Once he was settled, his broken leg cushioned with Rey's cloak, she eased between his legs. Rey leaned back against his chest as he snaked his arms around her body, settling them over hers on the steering yoke.

"Do you want to fly this thing or should I?" he asked.

"Let's do it together."


	2. Atonement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey brings Ben Solo back to the Resistance base on Ajan Kloss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter serves as an example of one of the many ways Ben Solo could have begun to atone for his crimes as Kylo Ren. In an ideal world, this process would have begun prior to the showdown on Exegol (and Ben would have also been given an opportunity to defeat Palpatine with Rey), but it didn't, and so here we are.

Rey brought the X-wing in for a landing amid the greenery shrouding the Resistance base on Ajan Kloss. Ben lay with his head against the seat, a blindfold covering his eyes, as he'd been since just before they'd left hyperspace. He'd reasoned – rightly, she grudgingly admitted – that her friends would feel safer if he didn't know the exact location of their hidden base. She was annoyed that such precautions were even necessary, but knew that they were, at least until her friends learned to trust Ben as she did.

The cockpit hatch rose with a squeal of rusted metal and Rey scrambled onto the wing. She reached over the side of the cockpit and slipped the blindfold from Ben's face. His skin was clammy, face drawn with pain.

"Do you need help getting out?" she asked gently.

He nodded. "My leg –"

"It's broken," she said.

"I think I cracked a couple of ribs, too."

"Sit tight. I'll go to the med wing and get you a stretcher."

"No," he said from between gritted teeth. "Please don't leave. I can't fight them all in this condition."

"They won't fight –" she trailed off.

But of course, they would. The Resistance had no reason to trust the man they knew as Kylo Ren. Had no idea the villain they once knew was gone forever.

"You're right. I'll stay," she said, "and send someone else for the stretcher."

"Rey!" Finn yelled. "You're alive! I knew you were. I felt you die, and then I felt you come back."

"What are you talking about, Finn? What do you mean you felt me die?"

"I felt you – through the Force!"

"You have the Force?"

"Yes, that's what I've been trying to tell you."

Poe came up behind Finn. "Is that all it was?" he grumbled.

"That's – wonderful, Finn. But maybe we can talk about this later? I need a stretcher from medical."

"I'll get one," Rose said and ran off.

"Are you hurt?" Poe asked, leaping onto the wing next to Rey.

"No. I'm fine," she said. "I brought –"

"You brought us a prisoner," Poe said with a grin. "Wherever did you find him?"

"No, I brought you an ally," she corrected.

Poe laughed. "Nice one, Rey. Chewie," he called, "Bring me a pair of handcuffs, would you?"

Chewie howled an assent and loped toward the armory.

Poe turned back to Rey. "Now, tell me where you're hurt."

"I'm not hurt," she said through gritted teeth. "Ben is. Broken leg. Cracked ribs. He needs medical care."

"This isn't Ben Solo," Poe said, "It's Kylo Ren. And he doesn't need medical care, he needs a cell."

"You're wrong," Rey said softly. "Kylo Ren died on Kef Bir."

"Then why is he sitting in the cockpit of Luke Skywalker's X-wing?"

"He's not. Ben Solo is sitting in the cockpit of Luke Skywalker's X-wing."

Poe heaved a long-suffering sigh. "I don't know what game you're playing, Rey, but I'm tired of it. It's been a long couple of days. I need you to step aside so I can take custody of your prisoner of war and lock him in a cell. Preferably a very small, very dark one with no key."

"No," Rey said. "I'm taking him to the med wing."

"Rey," Ben said wearily. "Let him lock me up."

"But," Rey protested, "you're not going to hurt them."

"He doesn't know that," Ben explained. "He can't see what you see. He doesn't know what you know. It'll be okay."

Rey nodded her head, swiping angry tears from her eyes. Ben was right – even if she didn't want him to be. She stepped aside as Chewie handed a pair of cuffs to Poe who snapped them onto Ben's wrists.

"Can't you cuff him after we get him out?" she asked. "He's injured."

"No," Poe snapped. "It's too risky." He jerked Ben forward, tried to haul him out of the cockpit, and failed miserably. "Chewie!" he yelled. "Come up here and give me a hand with this very large man."

Rey jumped to the ground as Chewie clambered onto the wing and lifted Ben out, cradling his best friend's son in his big, hairy arms. He climbed down after Rey and set Ben on the ground with a gentle thump. Ben swayed a few times until Rey put her arm around him to steady him.

"Get away from him, Rey," Poe snapped.

"Don't tell me what to do," she snapped back. "You've gotten your way, and now I will get mine. I'm accompanying Ben to his cell where I will treat his wounds and see that he's comfortable."

"We just need to know what's going on, Rey," Finn said, inserting himself between Rey and Poe, arms raised in a placating gesture.

"Of course, I'll debrief you when I'm finished. Now can someone tell me where we're taking him before he collapses from exhaustion? And Rose –"

"I'll get a med pack," Rose said, hurrying away again.

Finn and Poe led the way to an empty storage room in an abandoned corner of the base. It was small, but dry, and had a sturdy door with a lock on the outside. Poe sent several Resistance soldiers scurrying off to retrieve a few necessary items for the makeshift cell and its occupant: a pallet and a blanket, a lamp, a bucket, and a plate of food and some water from the mess tent.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Finn asked once the cell was outfitted and Rose had returned with the med pack.

Rey knew Finn was only asking because he was worried about her, so she gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder and said, "I’m sure."

"I'll be standing right outside the door," he said. "Knock when you're ready to come out. And if you need anything..."

"I'll be sure to ask," she said.

Rey had only just guided Ben into the small room when the door slammed behind them, the key grating in the lock. The lamp flickered, casting shadows on the wall and over the jagged planes of Ben's face.

"Sit down and make yourself comfortable," she said, "and I'll treat your injuries."

After Ben was settled, she reached out her hand and laid it on his leg.

Ben jerked away. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Healing you, of course."

"No," he said angrily. "Use the med pack."

"Why? I've healed you before. I can do it again. It's quicker and much less painful for you."

"You were dead not a few hours ago. Bringing you back almost killed me. For a minute there, I thought it _did_ kill me. I won't risk that happening to you, too."

"Ben. I'm not helpless," she laughed, then stopped when she saw the stricken look on his face.

"This means a lot to you, doesn't it?"

"Yes," he choked. "Please, just use the med pack."

Rey cupped his chin in her hands. "You're a good man, Ben Solo," she said and was rewarded with another one of his sweet, sweet smiles.

Rey got to work treating Ben's visible injuries with the vial of bacta spray she found in the med pack. Then she set and splinted his broken leg and, finally, helped him remove his shirt so she could wrap his cracked ribs. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of his smoothly muscled torso – the same expanse of bare skin that had so thoroughly flustered her that night on Ahch-to so long ago. Only now his skin was mottled with deep purplish bruises and raw scrapes from his fall into the pit.

"You're a mess," Rey said affectionately as she pulled out the bacta spray again. "But I love you anyway." She applied the wrap, tying it off in a neat little bow, and then helped him put his shirt back on. "I need to find you fresh clothes and some better food," she mused as she administered an injection for the pain and handed him the plate. "There isn't enough food here to keep a Jawa alive, much less a grown man." 

Although he must certainly have been hungry, Ben set the plate aside and slipped his arms around Rey from behind. She relaxed into his embrace with a contented sigh, shivering slightly as his warm breath tickled her ear.

"Go talk to your friends," he whispered. "Eat. Sleep. Get cleaned up. Celebrate your Resistance victory."

"And you?" she asked, twisting in his arms until she met his serious brown gaze. "What will you be doing while I'm off pretending you're not locked up in a spare parts closet? This place smells like droid lubricant."

He shrugged. "Sleeping."

Rey quirked a skeptical eyebrow at the thin pallet. "On this?"

"I don't remember the last time I had a good night's sleep," he confessed. "Supreme Leader Snoke was a constant presence in my head up until the moment I killed him. And running the First Order? That kind of stress isn't conducive to peaceful slumber. Go let your friends see you're okay while I get some rest."

"You're sure you'll be fine here by yourself?"

"Yes," he smiled. "Now scram."

Rey leaned over to give Ben a quick kiss, got sidetracked, and several minutes later, after they both pulled away gasping, sprung lightly to her feet.

"I'll see you in the morning," she said. Then she knocked on the door and slipped into the hall without another word.

#

"I trust you have a damn good explanation for that stunt you pulled earlier," Poe said a short time later as he, Finn, Chewie, Rose, and Rey sat around a table in the kitchen eating a late dinner. Everyone else on base, it seemed, was celebrating in the mess hall. The muted sounds of joyous laughter and the sonorous notes of some sort of stringed instrument bled through the thin walls and underneath the crack at the bottom of the door.

"I do, but you're probably not going to believe me," she said.

"Try me," Poe replied.

So, Rey told them the story – beginning with her and Kylo Ren's duel on Kef Bir and Ben's return to the light side of the Force and ending with his selfless sacrifice amid the ruins of her grandfather's temple on Exegol.

"That's quite the story, but can you prove any of it?" Poe asked.

"Palpatine's lightning did knock out our electronics during the battle," Rose said helpfully.

"And I _felt_ Rey die – and then come back to life," Finn added.

"What about Ren? How can we know he's truly on our side? What proof can you offer that that monster is now Ben Solo?"

"I'm alive," Rey said bluntly. "He could have left me there, dead among the ruins. Slipped away and lived out the rest of his life on some no-name planet. Instead, he came here and voluntarily turned himself in to his former enemy. He's willing to do what he can to make up for the wrongs he's done."

"He could work as a slave for the rest of his life and still not make up for the things that he's done," Poe said. "Kylo Ren – Ben Solo – whatever he's calling himself now, he deserves death."

Rey looked them all in the eye, one by one. "He knows that," she said softly. "He's willing to accept his punishment. But I would ask for mercy on his behalf."

"Why?" Finn asked.

"Because I love him," Rey said simply. "And because I know his heart – and soul – as well as I know my own. The bond we share is incredibly rare and incredibly powerful. We're a dyad, two as one. He could no more lie to me than he could lie to himself. If you can't trust him to make good on his promises, then trust me in his stead. And if you don't do it for me, then do it for Leia. She sacrificed her life so that her son might have a second chance. _This_ is his second chance."

"You're asking a lot," Poe said.

"I know. But, please. I'm begging you. Punish him if you must, but spare his life."

Finn sighed. He and Poe exchanged a weighted glance before Poe gave a slight nod. "Okay," Finn said. "We'll talk to him in the morning, see what information he can give us. There are bound to still be pockets of First Order troops our allies couldn't quell in today's battle. Solo can help us root them out. And help us dismantle the stormtrooper training program."

"I want him to rebuild what the First Order took from so many families," Rose said quietly. "What they took from my family."

"And he'll need to be monitored around the clock," Poe said, "by someone who can keep him in check. He can't just run around free."

"That won't be a problem," Rey said. "Where he goes, I go."

"He's too dangerous," Finn protested. "What if he decides to turn again?"

"He won’t," Rey said. "But even if he did, I'm the only one who can take him down."

"Are you sure about that?" Poe asked.

"Positive."

"Okay then," Poe said. "Get out of here. All of you. Party hard tonight because tomorrow the real work begins."

Everyone scattered in different directions. When the coast was clear, Rey slipped away to her room, grabbed a fresh set of clothes, and took a nice, long shower. Then she tiptoed down the dimly lit hallway to Ben's cell, instructed the guard to let her in, and spent the rest of the night curled against her sleeping soulmate's broad back.

#

Poe called Ben into the meeting room the next morning. The Resistance general sat at the head of a long table, shoulders stiff under his leather pilot's jacket, lips set in a thin line. Finn sat to his right and Maz Kanata to his left. Uncle Chewie and Rey's friend – the mechanic named Rose – were also present.

Rey helped Ben into a seat at the other end, propping his splinted leg on a chair before taking a seat next to him. He'd woken at dawn to the luxurious feel of her slender body pressed against his back, her arm thrown carelessly across his torso. It was a delicious feeling, made all the more precious in light of the refreshment gained from a good night's sleep.

Rest had been slow in coming – despite his assurances to the contrary – until Rey had crept into his cell in the early hours of the morning and settled in beside him as if it were the most normal thing in the galaxy. He'd been unsure what to say or do and had, instead, simply feigned sleep, slipping into actual slumber soon after.

"Rey tells me you've had a change of heart," Poe began, "and wish to join our ranks. Is this true?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"And you're willing to publicly renounce the First Order and your identity as Kylo Ren?"

"Kylo Ren is dead," he said simply.

"Rey said as much," Finn said uneasily. "She trusts you, but I hope you understand it's not that easy for the rest of us. We need proof."

"Of course," Ben said. "What are your terms?"

"For starters, we need your help putting down what remains of the First Order. This means giving us locations of hidden bases, names of allies and weapons suppliers, access to whatever remains of the fleet, and, when necessary, your skills in battle."

"You'll give us the location of every secret stormtrooper training facility run by the First Order," Finn added, "provide access codes for the mainframe so we can upload rehabilitation programs, and give us access to any files you have about the families these children were taken from."

Rose spoke next. "Wherever possible, you will assist with the physical rebuilding of any city, space station, or planet negatively affected by the First Order's tyrannical reign. And you will give us an accounting of all financial assets – your own and anything belonging to the First Order – to be used for rebuilding and reparations."

"When you're not assisting us with Republic business," Poe said, "you'll live in exile on a planet of our choosing until your debt to the galaxy is paid and you are no longer a threat to society. You won't get another chance. If you renege on any of these conditions or attempt to defect back to the dark side of the Force or the First Order, the cost will be your life."

"What is Rey's role in all of this?" Ben asked.

"She is to be your keeper," Poe said shortly, "because she has asked to do so and because, as she rightly pointed out, she's the only person who could ever hope to keep you in line, or, should the need arise, neutralize you." 

"And my mother?"

"You may keep your name, but you will forfeit any and all privileges associated with being the son and heir of Leia Organa-Solo."

"No, you don't understand. I don't care about titles. I want to see my mother. I want to know what happened –"

"She's gone, young Ben," Maz said. "Surely you felt her reach for you in the darkness."

"Yes," he whispered, "I felt it." His mother's voice calling to him across light years had unsettled him so completely that for a moment he'd let his guard down, giving Rey the opportunity to stab him through with his own lightsaber.

"Then you know she gave her life to save yours."

 _Yes._ His mother's last sacrificial act had brought about the beginning of the end of Kylo Ren. She had given everything to get her son back. To get _Ben_ back.

"But her body –" Ben choked through his tears.

"Her body disappeared. Became one with the Force the very moment she sensed you were truly safe. "Now go and live the life you were meant to live, Ben Solo. Don't let your mother's sacrifice be in vain."

Rey clasped his hand under the table in a silent show of solidarity, the feel of her callused fingers a gentle reminder that he was never alone.

"Do we have a deal?" Poe asked.

"Yes," Ben said. "We have a deal."


	3. Remembrance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben return to Tatooine to honor the dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I tried to keep this scene as close to the movie as possible...with a few key changes.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it and that it helps you envision a more hopeful ending to TROS. As always, thank you for reading. Comments and constructive criticism are welcome.

Ben stepped off the _Falcon_ onto the golden sand of his grandfather's home planet. The burned-out husk of the old Lars homestead shimmered in the distance, a motley collection of broken walls and ruined machinery long ago scavenged for parts and half-buried under the encroaching desert.

"Are you ready?" Rey asked, coming to stand beside him, once again clad in desert beige.

They'd been through so much together in the last year – fought together, slept together, rebuilt entire cities together. The Resistance – and later the New Republic – had sent him in to negotiate with madmen, used him as bait to flush out suspected ambushes, and sent him on countless missions to reunite stolen children with their families.

Too often, he'd been tasked with delivering messages of a different sort to parents whose children had perished in the war or for whom Finn's reconditioning programs had failed. Those visits were always the hardest, for he'd been obligated – no, required – to tell each and every grieving loved one his name and former title. He'd been cursed at and spit on, punched and railed at so many times he was almost numb to the sting of it. Almost, but not quite.

In a way he was grateful for the pain, for it kept him tethered to his humanity, tethered to the light within his soul that had never quite been extinguished, no matter how hard he'd tried to blot it from existence. He should be grateful – he _was_ grateful – that he'd never had to do any of it alone. Rey had been with him every step of the way, in her rainbow kaleidoscope of outfits, one for every planet and new culture they experienced together. Even when she'd been ordered to stand down and let him go on alone, she'd refused to leave his side.

Poe had blustered, Finn had begged, Rose and Maz had silently egged her on. Uncle Chewie had – well, more often than not, Uncle Chewie had insisted on coming along, ostensibly to guard Rey. But the big softy had stepped between Ben and more than one blaster bolt, which Ben strongly suspected was Wookiee for "you're forgiven."

Six months ago, when a Force vision had wrenched him out of a sound sleep, Rey had followed him to Kef Bir and waited patiently on the ruins of the old Death Star while he spent long days searching beneath the waves for his discarded lightsaber.

Shortly afterward, when her own recurring vision refused her even a moment's peace, he'd accompanied her on another quest. This one to retrieve the kyber crystal she would use to power her own lightsaber.

They had spent long nights in their hut on Ahch-to, huddled in front of the fire, Rey studying the Jedi manuals as she constructed a double-bladed lightsaber using her deconstructed staff for the handles, and Ben pouring his heart and soul into the difficult – and painful – process of healing his broken kyber crystal.

The feel of Rey's hand slipping into his pulled Ben from his memories. "Are you okay?" she asked. "I can go alone if that would be easier."

Ben looked down at his soulmate – this strong, fierce, warrior of light – and marveled again, as he always did, that the Force had seen fit to _bring_ them together, that love had seen fit to _keep_ them together.

"No," he said with a gentle smile. "I'm with you every step of the way."

#

Rey freed a piece of scrap metal and rode it like a sled into the ruins of Master Luke's childhood home. There wasn't much to see – just a few bits and pieces of flotsam half-buried in sand and bleached white by Tatooine's twin suns. After a few quiet minutes of reflection, she hiked back out, circling the ruin once, twice, three times in search of just the right spot.

Ben had disappeared into Luke's workshop ten minutes ago, and Rey had let him go without question, knowing some things were meant to be grieved alone.

It was a truth that applied to both of them.

Rey stopped. _Here. Right here._

Dropping to her knees, she retrieved a cloth from her bag and spread it on the sand. She laid Luke and Leia's lightsabers side by side on the cloth and wrapped them in a neat package, securing it closed with a bit of string. Then she laid her hand on the package, closed her eyes, and used the Force to drive the sabers deep underground.

_Goodbye Master Luke. Master Leia. May the Force be with you._

Two generations of Skywalkers had lived on this planet. It hadn't been Leia's home, but it had been Luke's, and in Alderaan's absence, this seemed the best place to bury the sibling's sabers.

After all, she no longer had use for them. Rey fingered the double-bladed saber clipped to her belt. Detached one end and fingered the smooth bands of leather on the hilt. She flicked the ignition switch and a golden blade flared to life. It was the blade of a guardian according to the ancient Jedi texts.

 _Fitting,_ Ben had said with a teasing grin the first time she'd ignited it, _since you're my guardian_.

They had both been struck speechless the day he'd finally ignited his newly rehabilitated saber and beheld its brilliant white light. It had served as proof – for Maz Kanata at least – that Ben Solo's return to the light side of the Force was real, for only a true Jedi could heal a bleeding, broken kyber crystal. If Poe and Finn and the rest of the New Republic were slower coming around, well, it would happen eventually.

She had no sooner regained her feet when an old woman rode up on a desert beast.

"I haven't seen anyone around these parts in ages," she said. "What's your name?"

"I'm Rey," she said.

_Rey who?_

Rey turned at the sound of the twin voices in her head and beheld Master Luke and Master Leia's flickering forms. They smiled at her as if encouraging her to claim a new heritage – their heritage – for her own.

She turned back to the old woman. "Rey Skywalker," she corrected.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Rey's heart skipped a beat at the sound of his voice. Just the way it always had and, hopefully, always would. She turned again, and there he was. Clad in black and striding toward her with all the cocky arrogance of a world-class smuggler. With the grace and strength of a princess turned general. And with the passion of a boy slave who had turned to darkness for love of a woman and returned to the light for love of a son. "Tell her your name, my love," he murmured, voice soft now in her ear.

Rey turned back to the old woman with a brilliant smile. "My name is Rey," she said again. "Rey Skywalker Solo. And this is my husband, Ben."


End file.
